Wrongful Death Complaint Filed Against Tough Mudder

Avishek Sengupta died at event on April 20, 2013.

Nearly one year to the day after Avishek Sengupta drowned on April 20, 2013 at the Mid-Atlantic Tough Mudder in Gerrardstown, West Virginia, his estate has filed a wrongful death complaint. The civil suit, submitted to the circuit court of Marshall County, West Virginia last Friday, lists the Tough Mudder; the rescue diving company, Airsquid Ventures; and the rescue diver, Travis Pittman, as defendants. In addition, the Peacemaker National Training Center, where the event was held, and General Mills, whose Wheaties brand sponsored the “Walk the Plank” obstacle where Sengupta died, are also listed as co-defendants.

As Runner’s World reported last June, the Berkeley County Sheriff’s office in West Virginia ruled the death an accidental drowning, though witness accounts and video footage of the incident indicated a slow and confused emergency response.

Sengupta’s estate, which is represented by his mother, Mita, charges the defendants with gross negligent conduct, including failure to follow basic safety precautions and false and misleading representations regarding the safety of the event. The estate seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

Since Tough Mudder debuted in 2010, the company has held more than 100 of its events, and Sengupta’s death was the first among its 1.3 million participants to date. Each race is 10-12 miles and includes unique obstacles, including running through a field of live wires and jumping over fire. One of the most prominent challenges is Walk the Plank, where participants jump from a wooden platform approximately 15-feet high into an icy, man-made pit of muddy water roughly 13 feet deep. In the court complaint, the plaintiff asserts that the Tough Mudder – reacting to previous participant complaints on social media about long waits at Walk the Plank – took steps to increase the flow of racers through the obstacle. To do so, the claim maintains that Tough Mudder neglected to put lane dividers on the platform to prevent participants from striking neighbors after jumping, did not have multiple volunteers on the platform to regulate the timing of the jumps and failed to track every participant from the moment of entry into the pool until their safe exit out of the water.

“Indeed, the lone volunteer atop the platform on April 20 was ordering participants to jump off the platform while his back was turned to the water, so that he had no idea whether or not the pool was clear of participants below,” the claim reads.

April 20 was a rainy and windy day, and the plaintiff estimates the water temperature to have been between 41 and 54 degrees Fahrenheit (based on the ambient outdoor temperature) when Sengupta arrived at Walk the Plank.

According to the court report, approximately 1.5 seconds after Sengupta jumped in the water, and before he resurfaced, the next participant jumped into the same area where Sengupta entered the water. The plaintiff believes that the physical contact between the two participants, along with a “cold shock” Sengupta might have experienced upon hitting the muddy water, prevented him from surfacing.

Regarding the rescue, the court documents detail how three of the four water safety technicians did not enter the water to search for Sengupta while the fourth “waded” in it. “None of the technicians was prepared to submerge,” the complaint reads. “Each of them was dressed in swift water rescue gear, including helmets and life vests, which (unless removed) made it impossible for them to submerge.” The American Red Cross requires lifeguards to be prepared to make surface and underwater rescues.

In a new revelation, the complaint states that the rescue-diving credentials for the rescue diver, Travis Pittman, were expired at the time of the event. Pittman, who worked the event for Amphibious Medics, a subsidiary of Airsquid Ventures, did not submerge until approximately four minutes after Sengupta had submerged and three minutes after one of Sengupta’s friends alerted a lifeguard to Sengupta’s disappearance. The documents reveal there was a second diver at the event, but that neither he nor his scuba gear was present at Walk the Plank, the only deep water obstacle on the course, at the time of the drowning.

“The desultory response also violated Tough Mudder’s own representations concerning water safety measures,” the complaint reads. “In documents submitted to local officials in connection with this and other events, Tough Mudder represented that “water rescue divers” would be placed at every obstacle requiring participants to swim, and that these divers would have the “ability to instantly ‘splash’ should a deep water rescue be necessary.”

According to the complaint, Sengupta spent between 8.5 and 10.5 minutes underwater. During this time, the court documents say the defendants failed to summon an ambulance, which was reportedly parked on the Peacemaker National Training Center grounds, to the emergency scene. Sengupta “was out of the water for as many as 16 minutes before an ALS [Advanced Life Support] team finally arrived,” the claim reads. The plaintiff stated it believes that Tough Mudder and Amphibious Medics “delayed making a radio announcement that Avi was missing and summoning an ALS team in order to avoid commotion in connection with the incident.”

A spokesman for the Tough Mudder declined to comment for this article. Michael Donoghue, the president of Amphibious Medics, declined to comment for this story on the advice of his attorney.

In addition to the above claims, the plaintiff is contending that the liability waiver Sengupta signed is invalid or unenforceable for, among other reasons, it was obtained by fraud, it is vague and it was obtained without full disclosure. Sengupta’s estate did not disclose the monetary figure they are seeking in damages, but they have requested a trial by jury.

The defendants have 30 days to respond to the complaint.

The video clip below is taken from race participant Brett Brocki’s full video of his participation. The video does not show Sengupta jumping into the water. It begins as word spreads that Sengupta has not come out of the pool. Note: The video contains strong language and depicts intense reactions to the attempt to rescue Sengupta.

Tough Mudder Rescue from Participant's Point of View

Tough Mudder Rescue from Participant's Point of View

0:07 into the video: The diver is seen sitting at the left corner of the pool.0:25: People scream for “Avi.”0:50: A participant enters the water, joining another participant and a race official.0:51: Diver enters water.1:41: Another participant enters water.1:43: Diver calls for others to get out of the water.2:03 and 2:19: Diver interacts with officials. Officials appear to hand diver objects.2:27: Diver submerges.4:00: Brocki and his teammates walk from the scene.